The Freire Institute is an organization for transformative community-based learning. In our programmes your own knowledge and life experience becomes the raw material for education. We develop tools and approaches based on the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, whose work has inspired many social movements and educational programmes around the world.

Education in this sense is a tool for individual and community empowerment and transformation. Our approach is informal, challenging and exciting. You do not need any formal qualifications to take part, just a commitment to learning and change. Programmes and activities are open to individuals, community groups and churches and we can tailor programmes flexibly to suit your group's needs. We also hold one-off community arts events and workshops around specific issues.

Our name is inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. Our approach owes a lot to the techniques pioneered by Freire and supplemented by practice elsewhere. We also draw upon organizing principles derived from Saul Alinsky and others.

These techniques and principles have been successfully adopted by community organizations, church-based groups and issue-based networks in many countries. The Freire Institute welcomes enquiries from anywhere around the world, and we seek to co-operate with other Paulo Freire-related institutes and organizations.